


A Snake's Voice

by AkaUsa



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Betrayal, Denial of Feelings, F/F, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 11:31:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11758938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkaUsa/pseuds/AkaUsa
Summary: It is a well-known fact that one should not listen to the words of a snake.





	A Snake's Voice

**Author's Note:**

> An attempt to rewrite an old french fic of mine from 2013, with some changed and added sentences.

Tales often advised to be careful of a snake's seductive words. Maka had always found the advice a bit absurd in how obvious it was. Maybe because she had learnt early on to be wary of seducers and smooth talkers thanks to that idiot that called himself her father. The word seductive itself seemed to leak of badly hidden intentions, revealed in plain sight by its description alone. To an avid book reader like Maka, recognizing and knowing something meant being ready to face it anytime.

You would indeed have to be a fool, to follow advices coming from the seductive voice of a snake, when you could plainly sense the secret intents in its tone, even without knowing exactly what it did hide. To be able to deceive its target, a snake should have been invisible, or so Maka thought.

Shibusen's nurse didn't have a seductive voice. Her tone had been welcoming, warm and charming. Honey to Maka's ears, who was saddened at the time that there weren't many adult women she could talk to after her mother had left the city.

She never could have seen it coming but then, except for doctor Stein, no one else in Shibusen had even a hint about Medusa's well hidden secrets.

When she first heard her true voice, her witch's voice, Maka thought it sounded seductive and inconsciously, she started to consider her less dangerous than before. After all, now that everyone in Shibusen knew who exactly was Medusa, defeating her sounded much easier.

To understand her mistake, she had to wait until the end of their mission to destroy Baba Yaga's castle.

 

* * *

 

During their whole undercover infiltration, she loathed having to hear this strangely beguiling child's voice whose orders she had to obey. Despite her disgust for the witch however, she couldn't help listening with all her attention every time she spoke, even when she was talking to someone else entirely. At first she acted this way because of her mistrust, because she wanted to be sure at any moment that Medusa wasn't trying to throw them into a trap. Then curiosity started to follow, as she wondered about the purposes of the witch who was leading them towards the core of the castle, apparently without trying to betray them in the middle of their task.

It was only when Medusa had shed away the child's body to steal her sister's one and found back her true voice that Maka finally understood how much more dangerous she was like this. While being absolutely conscious of the horrors her enemy promised, she couldn't help but feel some kind of inexplicable fascination as every word escaped the witch's mouth to reach her ears.

Maybe that was what should be feared from a snake's seductive voice. That you couldn't stop yourself from listening to it even while knowing nothing good would come from them. And because she knew what her true nature was, a false feeling of safety had overtaken her that Medusa perfectly knew how to profit from. Painfully, she realized her words ended up hurting even more than the black arrows that had pierced her side.

She naively had thought knowing a word's definition meant to understand all its aspects, know all its uses. In theory, everything was simple: Medusa was a witch, ergo not trustworthy. When it came to a real life situation though, being aware of it didn't mean she could always escape being tricked or not feel anything once she was finally betrayed. As Medusa ran away without giving her any answers, she was left aching to hear more of that voice, with the faint hope that she would gain something from it.

 

* * *

 

Limited to the only memories she had left, she tried to analyze every sentence, attempted to find a hidden hint in the tone of each word, repeated them in her head until blood pounded under her temples with a buzzing sound. She desperately wanted to understand what made that voice so particular, as if it was the key to her unlikely future victory.

Though Medusa could appear provocative, she was never vulgar. Her tone and vocabulary still had some of the distant politeness she used as a nurse. It was more cold, cruel even, once she had revealed her true motives but there had also been a soft warmth in some of her words.

A weird and unsettling feeling rised in Maka's belly as she remembered the way Medusa had said her name, now slightly distorted by the haziness of her recollection. Quivering, she quickly tried to think of something else, like picturing the witch saying silly words that would probably never pass her mouth. An absurd way to chase away fear, akin to thinking of a scary teacher in a ridiculous bathsuit.

Somehow, Maka couldn't really imagine her swearing. She always seemed so in control of herself that she doubted Medusa would let an insult accidently slip out, even if a disaster happened to her. Maybe she would switch to a rude, bad-mannered speech if she saw fit to do so but without a particular reason or meaning for it, Maka didn't see her changing her ways of speaking.

Which led her to wonder how she would react if Maka started to provoke her by spitting insults in her face. Maybe she would answer in kind, only with the cruelty of an experimented adult. Or maybe she would use that syrupy voice that leaked of disdain, to tell her how she had been a bad girl that needed to be punished so she would learn not to use such words again. The idea made her shiver slightly.

Maka wasn't one to swear a lot either though, so she didn't see herself doing it to taunt Medusa into an unknown and possibly dangerous reaction. It was better to stop thinking about all that anyway, there was no point in doing it. Trying to picture Medusa whispering terrible things in her ear was too weird to be psychologically healthy.

She could have convinced herself that it was an attempt to erase any residual positive image she had of the witch but really, at that point there shouldn't have been anything left to destroy already. More troubling was this funny little voice inside her, that she wanted to shut up, telling her that she didn't understand at all what this was about, that she had it all wrong, all terribly wrong.


End file.
